Capital One News: Airline Transfers, New Higher Bonuses – and Should You Even Bother?

The new Capital One Venture 75,000 miles and Spark up-to-200,000 miles offers are not the only Capital One’s recent newsworthy changes. The issuer has also added airline transfer options to its Venture and business Spark cards. The transfer rate is 2:1.5, and the partner airlines are as follows:

Aeromexico

Air Canada

Air France and KLM (Flying Blue)

Alitalia

Avianca

Cathay Pacific

Etihad Airways

EVA Air, Finnair

Hainan Airlines

Qantas

Qatar Airways

Practically speaking, only a few of these airlines are making sense to me in terms of transferring miles and even then – under limited circumstances:

Here is a little fact from my own experience if you’re curious. Since 2010, I’ve only managed to get 2 Capital One cards: the Venture and the Spark. How many times have I tried? Quite a few. I don’t remember exactly, but it was more than 5 or 6, and at some point, I just stopped trying.

That’s right: Capital One is worse than Chase, worse than City, worse than Amex, and worse than Barclays. And, if that’s not enough, they pull all 3 credit reports!

So think hard before applying for one of those. You don’t have to be a hardcore churner to fall into the bad graces of Capital One. This Reddit Survey can help you evaluate your chances.

But 200,000 points…

Gee, I hope no one is falling for that.

Say you get approved for the Spark Miles card. You’ll need to spend $5,000 in the first 3 months to get 50,000 miles and $50,000 in the first 6 months to get the final 150,000 miles.

This is insane!

Unless we’re talking legit business with high organic spend, MS-ing that kind of money – $45,000 – doesn’t make any sense. You’d be getting 3.3x miles per dollar spent, which wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to churn $45,000 in 6 months. Of course, if you run a legit business that requires this kind of spend, that’s not a bad deal (although not spectacular, either). Otherwise, just grab the first 50,000 miles and be done with it.

Are you going to apply for one of the Capital One cards, or have you already?

Hi. My name is Andy Shuman. I'm an avid traveler, a travel and credit writer, and I'm the author of the bestselling Lazy Travelers Handbook series. My message is simple. Every American with good credit can travel for free. Not just cheap, but free! READ MORE